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Between 2015 and 2016, Jimma University developed and ran a training and mentoring programme with the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health to improve the Ministry’s capacity for using evidence in policy making. This case study discusses the project and its potential for shaping the institutional culture of this busy department.

To really embed a culture of using evidence in health policy, the project team recommends that evidence training be a nationally accredited, professional course. But the training and mentoring programme identified two specific areas of need, which Jimma University plans to address in cooperation with the newly established Knowledge Translation Department at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute:

to better target and focus support on what staff need: planning and policy staff and staff providing services should undertake separate training. The programme’s focus on research design, research methodology and validation of research results was considered relevant by those participants whose day-to-day work involved planning and research, but those participants providing services – such as the blood bank, legal, ethical and clinical services – found it less relevant

there is a need for specialised training on systematic review training and knowledge translation tools for researchers within the ministry

figure out how to improve access to information both by providing better internet connectivity and skills to search effectively

Based on this, courses are planned in: systematic, umbrella and rapid reviews, a clinical fellowship programme for medical and clinical

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This issue of the Open Access IDS Bulletin examines the impact of decentralisation at the local level through detailed case studies of five countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. The issue deals with all three of the main aims for decentralisation reforms in Africa: improved service delivery, democracy and participation, and a reduction in central government expenditure.

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